Discussion Topic
Humorous elements in The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier
Summary:
While The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier is predominantly serious, it contains some humorous elements. These moments of humor often arise from the children's interactions and their resilience, providing brief relief from the novel's intense themes of war and survival. The humor helps to humanize the characters, making their struggles and triumphs more relatable to the reader.
What are the humorous elements in The Silver Sword by Ian Serraillier?
By their very nature, any book about the horrors of the Holocaust and World War II are not humorous. However, there are various anecdotes in this great story that can be argued to be humorous.
The first of these, in my opinion, takes place when Joseph manages to escape from Zakyna, a prison camp, by successfully stealing a guard's uniform, putting it on, and sauntering out without a care in the world. He informs the boss of the outfit's true owner that he has nothing to report.
Later on in his mission to escape, Joseph is captured by a Polish man who later gives him refuge. The first moments of their encounter are humorous. Joseph "threatens" him by pretending that a chocolate bar is a gun.
Much later in the story, Ruth, Bronia, and Jan leave Warsaw and head to Posen to find Ruth and Bronia's brother, Edek. They also...
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want to find the transit camp where they heard he was being held. The travelers would have made a comical picture, as they were accompanied by Jan's chicken, Jimpy.
When the siblings are reunited with their brother Edek, he tells the humorous but improbable story of his escape from prison camp. He escaped by clinging to the bottom of a train and getting frozen to it after the train went through a big puddle.
Another humorous moment comes while the children are staying in a transit camp. Hilarity ensures after a chimpanzee escapes from a nearby zoo and decides to pay the camp a visit.
What are some humorous moments in The Silver Sword?
While I can't complete this assignment for you, I will point you towards two humorous anecdotes in this great book that you could refer to when writing your letter.
For the most part, this book is incredibly somber. It is the story of the Balicki family, the patriarch of which was arrested for daring to turn a poster of Adolf Hitler so that the dictator's face faced the wall. His wife was later taken to the labor camps, but the children managed to escape capture.
The first incident that could be written about with humor is Joseph's escape from Zakyna. Having managed to knock out a guard, Joseph manages to steal his uniform and put it on. His method of escape was as undramatic as could ever be imagined. He simply walks out with the guards, pretending he is one of them. The sheer bravery of this move makes it humorous, and in writing a letter about this, you could imagine how Joseph might have laughed from sheer nervous tension after his escape.
The other funny incident—and this is the one that I would choose to write a letter about—is when the Balicki children have been reunited and arrive in Berlin. Jan, who clearly has a way with animals, tracks down a chimpanzee who has escaped from Berlin Zoo. The chimp, who had bitten a policeman by this stage and was widely feared, shows an immediate liking and respect for Jan. This is great material for a humorous letter.